In Northern Taiwan, the former electronics plants of RCA have brought serious occupational and environmental damage. Over one thousand workers suffer from a variety of cancers. As they believe that these cancers were provoked by on-the-job exposure to organic solvents and polluted tap water, a group of 450 of them have sued the company with the support of the Legal Aid Foundation. In Southern Taiwan, the same foundation supports a group of residents of the Anshun area, where extremely high concentrations of dioxin have been found around a former chemical plant. Neighbors of the plant have experienced particularly high levels of diabetes. Dissatisfied with the relief payments and concerned about future health problems, notably a rise in cancer incidence, two hundred residents have launched a lawsuit against the company, the city and the state.

In both cases, the numerous studies conducted have left the plaintiffs feeling like guinea pigs used for the purposes of science, while they receive little or no return in terms of medical care or other compensation. They fear that, given the delays caused by wait-and-see politics, lengthy procedural battles, and the never-ending medical controversies before the court, they will have to witness more deaths within their group before any resolution may be found. Their lawyers are thus racing against the clock in an effort to turn insufficient data and inconclusive results into positive judicial decisions.